News

Tanker Snapshot

—Amy McCullough and Michael C. Sirak1/28/2011

AFA Caption

BodyText

Tanker Snapshot: Maj. Gen. Wendy Masiello, a senior USAF contracting officer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday that the service's mistaken release of data to would-be KC-X tanker suppliers Boeing and EADS North America last November did not reveal any proprietary or pricing information relative to the competition. Service officials made the subsequent decision to provide both companies with the same "snapshot" of information on each other's tanker after learning that an EADS employee briefly viewed a file meant for Boeing, but mistakenly sent to EADS, before realizing the Air Force's error and alerting USAF officials, she said. Boeing employees caught USAF's mistake before viewing the file they wrongly received on the EADS tanker. Providing both companies with the data snapshot was meant to address any "appearance of unfairness" surrounding the incident and "reestablished fairness in the competition" from USAF's perspective, she said. Steven Shirley, executive director of the Pentagon's Cyber Crime Center, told the committee that the forensic evidence supported the accounts of both companies' employees. Both companies acted properly, said both officials, neither of whom is involved in the tanker source selection. (Masiello prepared remarks) (Boeing statement) (EADS NA statement) (For more on the data disclosure, continue to Not Purposeful)